A Recipe for Disaster
by Cathook
Summary: How to cook up disaster, SG-1 style. An archaeological mission should be a well deserved break for Daniel, but despite all of Jack's good intentions his life might soon be in danger again.
1. Take one cup of Dr Daniel Jackson

**A Recipe for Disaster**

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><p><strong>Summary:<strong> How to cook up disaster, SG-1 style. An archaeological mission should be a well deserved break for Daniel, but despite all of Jack's good intentions his life might soon be in danger again.

**Timeline & spoilers:** This story is set in season one, shortly after episode 13. Some vague spoilers up to that point, but no real connections to past or future events.

Please leave a **review**!

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><p><strong>Take one cup of Dr. Daniel Jackson<strong>

Daniel adjusted the pack on his back. It was heavy, but that was entirely of his own doing. He'd brought a few books – as many as he could fit actually. On top of that was the excavation kit. He'd packed the big one, since they were going to be on the off-world dig site for at least one or two weeks. He didn't want to find himself missing something he should have brought.

Jack had insisted on strapping a handgun to his leg, and stuffing several extra clips of ammunition in his pack. He'd even made Daniel leave a book behind just to fit them. Daniel had grumbled and reluctantly obeyed, but as soon as Jack had left he picked the clips out and packed the book down again. In his opinion it was far more important than bullets, an opinion that often sent him into an argument with Jack. Their difference in priorities was one of those things that made people around them wonder how they could be friends, and so good friends at that.

The inner ring began to spin, filling the 'gate-room with a grating rumble. One by one the chevrons locked into place, each one announced over the intercom by Walter up in the control room. Once the sounds and motions of the alien mechanism had been awe-inspiring and a bit terrifying. Now they were mostly familiar. Of course, sometimes he still found himself filled with wonder at the sideways back flush of the wormhole opening, but the only thing he feared now was possibly what may lie beyond the event horizon. However, fear of an unknown world had never had much success in his heart. It was quickly overpowered by curiosity and exhilaration at the prospect of mind-blowing discoveries.

The event horizon settled to a rippling blue puddle, making the 'gate look like a gravity defying swimming pool. Jack, a step in front of Daniel and prepared to as always be the first through the 'gate, turned towards the control room. He lifted his hand in a sloppy salute that turned into a wave halfway through. That he even made that amount of an effort was a great compliment to the man standing up there. In reply General Hammond's voice sounded on the intercom.

"Godspeed, SG-1!"


	2. Stir in Col Jack O'Neill

**Stir in Col. Jack O'Neill**

P4C-962 was a rocky, deserted little orb. It was smaller than Earth, but due to an interesting phenomenon of the planet's mass and composition it had an almost equal gravity. At least, Sam thought it was an interesting phenomenon. Jack thought it was just another rock, not very different from the billions of others hurtling around in the galaxy. It was a miserable place to be, he decided, a whole minute and a half from setting his foot on its lifeless soil.

It was however heaven for Daniel, and for that reason alone Jack would endure it for the fourteen days ahead. It had been a rough time for Daniel lately, what with the water alien guy sucking memories of obscure text out of his brain and Hathor… well, Jack didn't really want to think of what she had done to him. Not to mention that behind it all loomed the loss of Sha're. Jack knew the hope that rose in his friend's heart each time they stepped onto a new world. The hope that maybe here there would be a clue to find her. And no matter how well Daniel hid it, he knew the disappointment he felt when it wasn't so.

At least Daniel had adjusted surprisingly well to the military setting of the SGC. On second thought, 'adjusted' might not really be the best word. Accepted, perhaps, though it could not be said he had resigned to it. Jack had already stopped counting the times he'd found his friend on the front line of a conflict of military and scientific interests, and he was sad to say he had almost as often found himself on the other side of said conflict. Daniel never backed down – he wasn't the kind to – but Jack suspected it must be pretty exhausting to keep fighting all the time.

Yeah, Daniel had earned this little archaeological excursion. It would be a chance for him to unwind while burying himself for a few days in doing the things he loved the most. And Jack would watch his back so he really could relax. Daniel had told him that he didn't need to come, and even had the General agreeing, but he had turned a deaf ear on both of them. Watching over Daniel on this trip, and letting it take as long as it did, was his way of making up for what he'd had to do the last time they had found something he'd been this eager to explore.

It had broken Jack's heart to tear Daniel away from Ernest's 'meaning-of-life stuff', but as far as he was concerned all the secrets in the universe meant nothing if you weren't alive. This time there would be no castle on the verge of collapsing into the sea – mainly because there was no sea at all on this dust ball of a planet. There would be nothing to interrupt Daniel. He would make sure of it.


	3. Add a generous measure of ruins

**Add a generous measure of ruins **

The ruins were everywhere, fanning out around the Stargate in every direction. It must have been a magnificent city once upon a time, and it still was impressive though time had turned the buildings into crumbling heaps of rubble. Daniel knew by a glance at Jack that to him it all looked like a bunch of rocks, and honestly he couldn't blame him. It was technically a bunch of rocks, but it was rocks that had once been carved and placed together by men – or perhaps some kind of aliens. A few years ago that amendment would have been laughable – or a reason to have him checked into a mental institution – but today either one was equally probable and exciting.

He dove into the work at once, descending on a chosen building with trowels and brushes like a small and meticulous whirlwind of exploration. Jack was on his heels, while Sam was heading off in a different direction to do some geological tests. Teal'c chose to go with her in case she needed some help with heavy lifting.

Daniel wasn't sure why Jack insisted on staying with him, and he was more than a little surprised when he even offered to help out. He knew Jack wasn't interested in archaeology. It was one of the differences between them that would never change. To shake off the conundrums he focused on the things in front of him, solid things, things that had been the same for centuries, things he knew and understood.

The familiar movements were…soothing. His hands had been doing too many other things lately. They had become a soldier's hands; learned how to fight. Jack had given him lessons in the gym. He said he had to learn how to defend himself. He'd taken him to the shooting range too and taught him how to fire the Beretta he now had strapped to his leg. Its presence felt awkward and fleetingly he wondered if he would ever get used to carrying it. He was quite sure he would never get accustomed to using it, even if he did see Jack's point about it. The galaxy seemed to be overfull of people and creatures who wanted to harm them and sometimes diplomacy just didn't work. It was a fact he would have to accept.

On this mission though, there would be no shooting. There was nothing on this planet that was a threat. There was nothing on this planet _period_ except for the ruins, and they wouldn't be attacking no matter what you did to them.

He scraped off another layer of gravely dust and felt his spade hit a snag. He brushed the dirt off with his fingers and the sun glinted off a golden edge. Curbing his excitement he resisted the urge to immediately dig all around the object to extract it. He might miss something else if he did that. In archaeology patience was the game – which Daniel had a sneaking suspicion was at least one reason why Jack found it so unbearable.


	4. Sprinkle with boredom

**Sprinkle with boredom**

Jack was bored. There was no doubt about it, and no reason to try and hide it. He tried anyway. This was Daniel's outing and it didn't matter that he had been on his hands and knees in a pit of gravel and rocks for the past two days now, only surfacing when Jack forced him to come up to eat or sleep. Jack was not going to let his own antsyness disturb him.

He had tried everything to ward off the boredom, including helping out with the digging. Apparently he hadn't been careful enough and Daniel had sent him up out of the pit. It had been obvious he had thought Jack would just go find himself something more fun to do, but he had set out to keep Daniel safe and he couldn't be sure to do that from out of sight.

He looked down in the pit where Daniel was digging away. Considering the meticulous way he worked it was amazing how far down he had gotten. He found little objects all the time, which he handed up to Jack and actually trusted him to carefully lay out on a tarp outside the building. The dirt piled up around the pit, making it look deeper still. And at the bottom Daniel just kept going down and down, most likely not intending to stop until he ran out of little 'artifacts' to find.

Jack sighed and went to take another look around the rest of the ancient building. He had done so a few times already but it might just ease the boredom a little. Meanwhile he was still close enough to watch over Daniel.

The house had one main chamber, about six feet square - _where Daniel has literally dug himself in_. Jack sniggered at his own poor joke as he clambered over a pile of rubble that had once been an interior wall. The room he was now in was one of four smaller ones that flanked the big one on the south and north sides. The building's entrance looked west and in the east…there was the tower.

The outer walls of the building had been better preserved, standing up to the level of Jack's chest. The city would make a splendid training field, he considered, feeling a little guilty to have such ideas about Daniel's little piece of heaven. The tower was well preserved as well, still reaching up two or three stories and only looking a little jagged at the top.

It was roughly round, and Jack wondered briefly at which amount of corners a polygon could be referred to as a circle. In the wall adjoining with the large room where Daniel was – _still happily digging _– there was a small doorway with a couple of little remnants of a wooden door. Inside he could see the lowest step of a staircase.

He stepped inside and cautiously started making his way up. On the first floor landing there was some pieces of wood, that may at one point been furniture. He made a mental note to tell Daniel about it later so he could come up and have a look. _I think he'll like that. _He continued up to another level, where there were more wood fragments and quite a lot of rocks. When he looked up he saw that most of the ceiling was missing and he could see the sky through the holes. The last steps up were still intact however, so he picked his way up to the remnants of the roof.

A few fragments of a balustrade remained on the edge, and he steadied himself on them as he looked over to spy the little figure of Daniel in his pit. He turned around and looked out over the city. Several other excavation sites were spread out in the near vicinity, starkly standing out as islands of activity in the dead environment. Here and there strolled a soldier, a small safety measure just in case… Jack gave himself a shake. There would be no 'in case' this time. And that was when he heard it.


	5. Quick Fry

**Quick fry**

It was a small sound at first. Just a whisper of dust falling on the floor below. Then there was a crash as a bigger stone fell, opening the whole in the roof wider. Another fell, and at the same time there was a low rumble. Stone grated on stone and with the sense of a beginning landslide the tower started leaning. The motion reminded Jack of the roll of a wave under a boat, just infinitely slower and terrifying. The lean became a tilt and he scrambled to hold on as the tower tipped and crashed into the ground, burying the rest of the building under several tons of stone.

The impact threw him off the roof and into a building across the street. For a few minutes he lay dazed, unable to move. Then the sound of raised voices reached his ears. Hands came to his rescue, pulling him up and out of the rubble. Sam's voice broke through, asking if he was alright. He pushed away the well meaning hands.

"I'm fine," he snapped, sounding a little more irritated than he meant to. He didn't have time for niceties though, or space for it in his mind. Despite all his efforts Daniel wasn't safe, and again it was his fault he was in danger. He pointed at the rock pile that was recently a tower.

"Daniel's under there!"

Sam looked from Jack to the rubble, and then she went into action with the speed of lightning. Orders flew from her mouth like bullets, and to Jack's satisfaction they got people moving. He watched through the bleary fog of concussion as the archeologists inspected the scene of disaster. They called for Daniel but there was no response. Leaning heavily on Sam, he halted over to them.

"He had dug himself a pretty big hole. He could still be safe underneath all the rocks right?"

The scientists poked around for a while longer, muttering about equilibriums, pressure and forces of gravity. Jack bit his tongue and drummed his fingers impatiently on his leg. He knew he shouldn't interrupt, knew they'd work as fast as they could, but each second that ticked by was a second less of the time Daniel had.

"It looks pretty stable," finally one of them said, and Jack almost jumped with joy. "If we work methodically we might have a chance to dig through without causing another collapse."

"Alright!" Jack said. "Let's get started!"

He tried to stand on his own, but swayed so that Sam had to grab onto him again. Reluctantly he let her help him sit down and give him a thorough examination. Even more reluctantly he began to realize that he would have to sit the rescue out.

It was dark and dusty. Daniel hadn't even seen the rockslide coming until it was very non-figuratively on top of him. Then everything was darkness and dust, and the sounds of rocks coming to rest on top of each other above him. He coughed, each breath he drew making him cough even worse. He could feel the dust irritating his throat, knew it would have his allergies acting up in a minute.

Faint voices reached him, and he tried to answer, but the stone dust made his mouth dry and his lungs felt too small. He was pretty sure no one could hear his cries. The thought woke a small and cowering ounce of panic in his gut, and he had to force himself to not give in to it. _They will find me_, he told himself. _They will find me, they will find me, they will find me, they will find me…_

Other sounds started sifting down through the rubble. Stones moving over other stones. More dust sifted down with the sounds, making the air thicker by the moment. Spots danced in front of his eyes. The breaths rasped into his lungs, his air pipe seizing up and shutting out the air. He groped through his pockets, belatedly remembering that his inhaler was in his vest pocket – up on the edge of the pit. _Please, please, find me…_

Just as the darkness seemed to be getting darker, like the world was slipping away from him, there was a sliver of light shooting into his living tomb. Dust rained down, but the light also brought with it a flood of fresher air. The hole above him widened and for a moment he could see the sky, before it was eclipsed by faces. Hands reached down to him. Voices called. At first he couldn't make out the words, but then he recognized Sam among them.

"Can you move?" she asked.

He nodded, almost reflexively, and tried to push himself up from the ground. He felt heavy, but he knew it was just weakness in his limbs. He reached for the hands and felt them grab on to his arms, pulling him up into the light. They carried him a few feet, and then gently placed him down on the ground. Sam's face appeared in his view and he went to speak, but ended up coughing instead.

"I'll fetch you some water," she said and gave him a pat on the shoulder before she disappeared.

A shuffling noise announced Jack, staggering over to him and nearly collapsing by his side.

"Hi there, buddy," he said, his voice a odd amalgamation of relief, regret and groan of pain.

Daniel gave a chuckle that turned into another coughing fit.

"You look worse than I feel," he managed when it had subsided.

A grin cracked across Jack's black and blue face.

"Yeah? Not all of us can be lucky-Daniel, you know. Do you have nine lives or something?"

Daniel settled for a smile this time. He'd wondered he same thing more than a few times lately, but he had decided not to give it too much thought. He might just jinx his luck.

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><p><strong>The End<strong>

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><p><strong>AN: **As you have noticed by now, this was a pretty short storym but it has potential to be longer. If there is interest from you, the readers, I'll consider writing an extended version/continuation/sequel. Let me know your opinions through reviews or pm. Thank you!**  
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